Sufjan Interviews Ex-Bandmate Shannon Stephens

It must've been confusing having someone named Stevens and someone named Stephens in the same band, but that was the case with Marzuki, the band Sufjan Stevens played in when he was in college. After they broke up, singer Shannon Stephens quit music, moved to Seattle, got married, and raised a family. Sufjan, well, we know what happened to him. But things move in cycles, and the ex-bandmates are now labelmates. Stephens just released The Breadwinner, her first album in 10 years, on Asthmatic Kitty.

And now Sufjan, whom we heard a new song from today, has taken to the Asthmatic Kitty website's Sidebar section to interview Stephens, and the conversation also hints at why we still haven't heard a proper Sufjan album since Illinois.

By way of asking a question about writing music in isolation, Sufjan says this: "I'm at a point where I no longer have a deep desire to share my music with anyone, having spent many years imparting my songs to the public. Although I have great respect for the social dynamic of music-- that it should be shared with others, that it brings people together-- I now feel something personal is irrevocably lost in this process. Now, while I refuse to act wholly on this impulse (I refuse to take my audience for granted in spite of my mood), I'm still trying to find the value of the song in private.

And talking about the relative glut of music on the Internet, he says this: "More and more, these days, the excess is getting to me. I sometimes feel I could not, should not, would not participate at all, and that my innocuous music offers nothing new or beneficial to the white noise of it all." The whole thing is worth a read; check it out here.